2011

Of Good News and Bad News

by Gary S. Smith

Have you heard any good news lately? Bad news abounds. It’s been another tough year. Economic woes continue. Greece and Italy are on the verge of bankruptcy. Unemployment is still high in the United States (around 8.6 percent), and the…

Hello, My Name is “Legion”

by Matthew Alderman

The Grand Inquisitor (paperback) Text by John Zmirak, art by Carla Millar, Crossroad, $16.73. At first glance, it seems designed specifically to freak out everyone in its numerous potential overlapping markets–an intricately Gothic comic book, its dialogue written in…

Musical Favorites of the Year

by Robert R. Reilly

I will not presume to present you with the best classical recordings of 2011, but will inflict upon you my favorites – those CDs that have found themselves most often on my player for repeat auditions simply because of the…

A Prophetic Novel of the End Times

by Rev. C. J. McCloskey III

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. (Eph., 6-12) And yet in spite of this…

Profanity and Pop Music

by L. Brent Bozell III

Profanity and pop music go hand in hand these days. The pop star Rihanna recently appeared on the British version of Simon Cowell’s singing competition The X Factor dressed in a demure plaid jumper with a prim white collar….

Is America Losing Control?

by Patrick J. Buchanan

“Events are in the saddle and ride mankind.” In describing 2011, few clichés seem more appropriate. For in this past year, we Americans seemed to lose control of our destiny, as events seemed to be in the saddle. While…

The Implausibility of Nuclear Terrorism

by Steve Chapman

Editor’s Note: Steve Chapman is on vacation. The following column was originally published in February 2008. “Death tugs at my ear and says, ‘Live, I am coming.’” Were Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. alive today, he might…

The Case for Austerity

by Judge Andrew Napolitano

Do you remember this summer’s debt debate debacle? It ended with the supercommittee, which ended in failure, which resulted in no cuts in government spending. Do you remember the summer before that, when tea party protesters came out in full…

Warnings of the End

by John C. Chalberg

Mark Steyn, After America, Regnery, $23. Patrick J. Buchanan, Suicide of a Superpower, Thomas Dunne, $22. A good prophet of doom, or at least a good-hearted prophet, always hopes that he is wrong. The same might be said of…

What Happened to Us in 2011?

by Alfred A. Lagan

Few will mourn the passing of 2011 into the financial history books. From an apparent economic recovery at year end 2010 and high optimism in the financial markets, a succession of natural disasters, economic disappointments, and government failures led to…

Best Excuses of 2011

by Jacob Sullum

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last March, shortly before he announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich reflected on his sins, which include cheating on his first two wives with women…

2011: A Year of Media Savagery

by L. Brent Bozell III

For those Republican presidential candidates who eventually conclude there is no path to the nomination, there is consolation in the notion that they won’t be the ones to face the brutal onslaught being prepared for the GOP king-of-the-mountain by…

Virginia is for Insiders

by Terence Jeffrey

When I managed Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign in 1996, I learned that some states conducted fair and honest caucuses and primaries and that some did not. Iowa, historically the first caucus state, and New Hampshire, historically the first primary…

America the Gullible

by Walter E. Williams

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman has called for states to mandate a total ban on cellphone usage while driving. She has also encouraged electronics manufacturers — via recommendations to the CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics…

Say It Loud: Bourgeois and Proud

The following essay, which first appeared at FrontPage Magazine, continues yesterday’s symposium on the “bourgeois spirit.” See also Dawson’s Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind, Jeffrey Tucker’s reply, In Defense of Bourgeois Civilization, John Peter Pham’s classic review of A Humane…

The Virtuous Bourgeois

by Rev. John Peter Pham

This book review first appeared in the June 1999 edition of Crisis Magazine. It continues yesterday’s symposium on the “bourgeois spirit.” See also Christopher Dawson’s essay, Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind, Jeffrey Tucker’s reply, In Defense of Bourgeois Civilization, Gerard…

In Defense of Bourgeois Civilization

by Jeffrey Tucker

The following essay was commissioned as part of this week’s symposium on “the bourgeois spirit.” See also Dawson’s Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind, and Gerard Russello’s account of Dawson’s contribution. Tell me this. Would you rather that your neighbor…

Whose Country Is It, Anyway?

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Half a century ago, American children were schooled in Aesop’s fables. Among the more famous of these were “The Fox and the Grapes” and “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Particularly appropriate this Christmas season, and every Christmas lately, is…

Christopher Dawson: Christ in History

by Gerald J. Russello

The following essay first appeared in the April 1996 edition of Crisis Magazine. It is part of today’s symposium on “the bourgeois spirit” as diagnosed by Dawson. See also Dawson’s essay, Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind, and Jeffrey Tucker’s reply,…

Random Thoughts

by Thomas Sowell

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Talk show host Dennis Miller said, “I don’t dig polo. It’s like miniature golf meets the Kentucky Derby.” Nothing illustrates the superficiality of our times better than the enthusiasm for electric cars, because…

Catholicism and the Bourgeois Mind

by Christopher Dawson

This essay is reprinted from Christopher Dawson, The Dynamics of World History, ed. John J. Mulloy. It previously appeared in the print edition of Crisis Magazine, with permission of its publisher Sheed and Ward, and was placed online by the…

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